Cristiano Ronaldo impressed against Manchester United in 2003 - then signed a day later

Sporting Lisbon and United enjoyed a close relationship and the pair met in a pre-season friendly in 2003.

By that time, a move for Ronaldo was already done. The then 18-year-old would spend a year playing in the Portuguese top flight before joining United at the end of the season.

But that plan was scrapped after Ronaldo made mincemeat of John O'Shea in a pre-season friendly.

Fergie reacted by holding immediate talks with Lisbon to accelerate the move to get it done earlier.

Manchester United icons Ferguson and Ronaldo reunited

SIR ALEX FERGUSON was present to congratulate Cristiano Ronaldo on his FIFA Best Player award in Zurich yesterday.

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Ferguson and Ronaldo

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Cristiano Ronaldo went on to become a Manchester United legend

“We had an agreement with Sporting Lisbon that he would join us next year”

Sir Alex Ferguson

Speaking in a Sky Sports programme celebrating Ronaldo's career, the Scot said: "We had an agreement with them anyway.

"It was only accelerated that night because of his performance against us, which was really exciting.

"We had an agreement with Sporting Lisbon that he would join us next year.

"So we did our work. We spoke to the boy after the game, we spoke to his mother, to his agent, and we got him on a private plane the next morning to Manchester and got the job done before people could blink.